Tools: Physical Simulation

To evolve neuro-controllers for and/or morphology of mobile robots there
is a need for a fast and stable physical simulation environment. For most of the
simulations we are using
YARS (Yet Another Robot
Simulator) wich is an easily
configurable, stable and fast simulator based on the
ODE library. YARS was jointly developed by
members of this group and members of the former INDY team at the Fraunhofer
IAIS. Our simulation environment allows for an efficient implementation of all
necessary physical components such as friction, slip, gravity, different types
of joints, obstacles, sensors (force sensor, camera sensor, ...) and motors
(servo, torque driven ...).

As can be seen e.g. in micro.adam & micro.eva and
the AMOS series of walking machines we are able to
successfully apply the controllers which are developed in simulation to real
hardware.